Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo 401 ❯ Rats ( Prologue )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: Vinyl-Koneko 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.27.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 884 | Visits: 345 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.27.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 884 | Visits: 345 | Status: Completed
Title: Duo 401 - Rats
Author: Vinyl Koneko (Emily), roguegirl@att.net
Rating: PG for this part, but I don't know what the series overall will be yet
Warnings: ::shrug:: looks like none
Archive: Want it? Take it. Just give me credit, please.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. I just like to play with them and make them play with each other.
Comments: This fic started out in my plot bunnies notebook and kinda evolved from there. It's Heero's POV. This is part one in a series of minifics that can stand alone, so they won't be written very frequently because parts will only come as the ideas form. ^_^ Enjoy.
*~**~*
The first time I learned anything about Duo's past was when we were on a mission to infiltrate an OZ base to steal information on their latest Mobile Doll project. To get to the lower level entrance, we had to crawl through a sewage pipe that ended in a grate. Through the grate was a slightly smaller pipe that opened up at the top to a chamber that served as a method for the maintainance crews to access all the sewage or air ducts to make the necessary repairs. We were then the crawl through a ceiling air duct until we found a room with a terminal jack for me to pull the information from.
It was Duo's job to get us in and out - mine to get the information. I was confident that Duo would have been able to accomplish this by himself even though his hacking skills were only slightly inferior to mine, but me, not being one to question orders, didn't say anything.
It looked secure on paper. After several servelliance runs we figured out the best times to go and an approximate window we had to operate in. I could run through the exact motions in my head, knowing that we couldn't fail. We had a plan to deal with anything that could get in our way, and nothing short of a nuclear warhead would be able to stop us.
The stench of the sewage pipe was unbelievable, but that had also been expected. Masks would have been too heavy to move easily in an emergency, so they were left behind. There was only one problem that I couldn't have anticipated.
Duo Maxwell was afraid of rats.
It was difficult to sense his apprehension at first. When most people are afraid, they scream, they cry, they get angry, but I had never seen Duo afraid before. Even Death seems incapable of threatening him, but then again, Duo does call himself Shinigami.
He'd keep his eye on them, trying to stay a good distance away, but it was difficult with the swarms of them. He thought I didn't notice, but his eyes got wider when they got closer, and I could see him subconsciously going for the firearm at his side, but any shot he made would have rung out through the pipe and possibly causing alarms to go off, so any wishes he might have had to just put a bullet between each one's eyes had to be quelled for security reasons.
I asked him later, when I was downloading the base's whole computer database onto my laptop, why he didn't tell me about his aversion to rats. That's how I put it. I had to make it sound like I needed to know because it could have caused a potential mission failure instead of wanting to know out of sheer curiosity.
He said that when you grew up on the streets of L-2, you see some pretty ugly things. I knew Duo was from L-2, but I didn't know he was an orphan forced to live on the streets because of war. Duo was part of a sort of gang with several other children, and they did whatever was necessary to take care of each other and survive.
Rats were a big problem.
In the streets of L-2, everyone and everything was hungry, and it was either adapt or be killed, so the rats had to resort to different ways of finding food. They would hunt in packs, like wolves, and enough rats were able to take down a small child in minutes. Duo said that these rats were huge, up to twelve pounds, and they were fast and nimble and the only way to survive was to be faster or have fire.
Then he showed me the scar on his shoulder, at the base of his neck. "Not everyone gets away from a battle without a few scratches," Duo had said wryly. "Whether it's here," he pointed to his shoulder, "or here," he pointed to his head, "or here," he pointed to his heart.
I asked him what he meant by that, but he just smiled sadly at me and turned away so I couldn't see his face, but I could see the tension in his posture. "It's because of the rats we had the plague," Duo said. I remember how I had to strain my hearing to make out what he said. "But, you know," he added, covering his melancholy with his usual joyfull attitude, even though I could sense that this one was fake, or at least flimsier than the others. "Life goes on."
*~**~*
Owari
Author: Vinyl Koneko (Emily), roguegirl@att.net
Rating: PG for this part, but I don't know what the series overall will be yet
Warnings: ::shrug:: looks like none
Archive: Want it? Take it. Just give me credit, please.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. I just like to play with them and make them play with each other.
Comments: This fic started out in my plot bunnies notebook and kinda evolved from there. It's Heero's POV. This is part one in a series of minifics that can stand alone, so they won't be written very frequently because parts will only come as the ideas form. ^_^ Enjoy.
*~**~*
The first time I learned anything about Duo's past was when we were on a mission to infiltrate an OZ base to steal information on their latest Mobile Doll project. To get to the lower level entrance, we had to crawl through a sewage pipe that ended in a grate. Through the grate was a slightly smaller pipe that opened up at the top to a chamber that served as a method for the maintainance crews to access all the sewage or air ducts to make the necessary repairs. We were then the crawl through a ceiling air duct until we found a room with a terminal jack for me to pull the information from.
It was Duo's job to get us in and out - mine to get the information. I was confident that Duo would have been able to accomplish this by himself even though his hacking skills were only slightly inferior to mine, but me, not being one to question orders, didn't say anything.
It looked secure on paper. After several servelliance runs we figured out the best times to go and an approximate window we had to operate in. I could run through the exact motions in my head, knowing that we couldn't fail. We had a plan to deal with anything that could get in our way, and nothing short of a nuclear warhead would be able to stop us.
The stench of the sewage pipe was unbelievable, but that had also been expected. Masks would have been too heavy to move easily in an emergency, so they were left behind. There was only one problem that I couldn't have anticipated.
Duo Maxwell was afraid of rats.
It was difficult to sense his apprehension at first. When most people are afraid, they scream, they cry, they get angry, but I had never seen Duo afraid before. Even Death seems incapable of threatening him, but then again, Duo does call himself Shinigami.
He'd keep his eye on them, trying to stay a good distance away, but it was difficult with the swarms of them. He thought I didn't notice, but his eyes got wider when they got closer, and I could see him subconsciously going for the firearm at his side, but any shot he made would have rung out through the pipe and possibly causing alarms to go off, so any wishes he might have had to just put a bullet between each one's eyes had to be quelled for security reasons.
I asked him later, when I was downloading the base's whole computer database onto my laptop, why he didn't tell me about his aversion to rats. That's how I put it. I had to make it sound like I needed to know because it could have caused a potential mission failure instead of wanting to know out of sheer curiosity.
He said that when you grew up on the streets of L-2, you see some pretty ugly things. I knew Duo was from L-2, but I didn't know he was an orphan forced to live on the streets because of war. Duo was part of a sort of gang with several other children, and they did whatever was necessary to take care of each other and survive.
Rats were a big problem.
In the streets of L-2, everyone and everything was hungry, and it was either adapt or be killed, so the rats had to resort to different ways of finding food. They would hunt in packs, like wolves, and enough rats were able to take down a small child in minutes. Duo said that these rats were huge, up to twelve pounds, and they were fast and nimble and the only way to survive was to be faster or have fire.
Then he showed me the scar on his shoulder, at the base of his neck. "Not everyone gets away from a battle without a few scratches," Duo had said wryly. "Whether it's here," he pointed to his shoulder, "or here," he pointed to his head, "or here," he pointed to his heart.
I asked him what he meant by that, but he just smiled sadly at me and turned away so I couldn't see his face, but I could see the tension in his posture. "It's because of the rats we had the plague," Duo said. I remember how I had to strain my hearing to make out what he said. "But, you know," he added, covering his melancholy with his usual joyfull attitude, even though I could sense that this one was fake, or at least flimsier than the others. "Life goes on."
*~**~*
Owari